Community Telephone Networks in Africa - Bridging the Gap Between Poverty and Technology

Many new cell phones on the market come with 802.11 enabled, along with standard Bluetooth functionality. A large percentage of working class people in South Africa typically cannot afford 802.11 enabled cell phones, and thus the most applicable form of wireless data transfer is achieved through the Bluetooth protocol. This paper investigates bridging Bluetooth and 802.11 protocols on low cost wireless routers equipped with a Broadcom chip and a Universal Serial Bus port, as well as bridging on high end cell phones.